Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Columnar Databases
If you are familiar with relational database systems, you are without a doubt
familiar with the traditional column and row layout used. To demonstrate
the differences, let's look at a concrete example.
Consider the entity-relationship diagram (ERD) shown in
Figure 4.6
.
It uses
a pretty common approach to model a one-to-many relationship between
customers and addresses. Like you've probably been taught throughout the
years, it is highly normalized and follows good relational database design
principles.
Figure 4.7
illustrates a populated customer and address model
based on the ERD found in
Figure 4.6
.
Figure 4.6
Entity-relationship diagram
Figure 4.7
Traditional database structure
Relational designs and databases do not easily scale and cannot typically
handle the volumes, variety, and velocity associated with big data
environments. ThisiswhereNoSQLdatabasessuchasHBaseweredesigned
to excel, yet they represent a very different way of thinking about and
ultimately storing your data.
